Cheney gave an order to shoot down any aircraft on 9/11 contrary to what the 9/11 Commission Report was left to believe. The order was still given way too late, but more importantly is who it was given by. It would be illegal for the military to listen to the VP for a shootdown order because only the President and Sec. of Def. Rumsfeld had the legal ability. Our military followed protocol. The importance comes because it is most likely that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld knew this would be the case, and planned it to be such. Bush and Rumsfeld were impossible to be found or contacted in the critical moments where they might have stopped the 9/11 attacks…..where is the media folks? This story does not get to the meat of the matter. – Brian @ Nor Cal

Newly published audio this week reveals that Vice President Dick Cheney’s infamous Sept. 11, 2001 order to shoot down rogue civilian aircraft was ignored by military officials, who instead ordered pilots to only identify suspect aircraft.

That revelation is one of many in newly released audio recordings compiled by investigators for the 9/11 Commission, published this week by The Rutgers Law Review. Featuring voices from employees at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and American Airlines, the newly released multimedia provides a glimpse at the chaos that emerged as the attack progressed.

Most striking of all is the revelation that an order by Vice President Dick Cheney was ignored by the military, which saw his order to shoot down aircraft as outside the chain of command. Instead of acknowledging the order to shoot down civilian aircraft and carrying it out, NORAD ordered fighters to confirm aircraft tail numbers first and report back for further instructions.

Cheney’s order was given at “about 10:15″ a.m., according to the former VP’s memoirs, but the 9/11 Commission Report shows United flight 93 going down at 10:06 a.m. Had the military followed Cheney’s order, civilian aircraft scrambling to get out of the sky could have been shot down, exponentially amplifying the day’s tragedy.